ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 



There are few places inland that can compare with the 



soil at Argenteuil ; besides, the land about Argentenil is full 

 of Paris night soil before the Asparagus is planted. The same 

 system is practised by Dutch bulb growers. They work into 

 the ground green cow manure to an extent unknown for any 

 crop in England, and first take Potatoes on 2 it. Moreover, 

 there is no soil that I know of in the three kingdoms so light 

 and easy to work as that of Argenteuil. Asparagus is a gross 

 and deep feeder, and can scarcely be too strongly manured. 

 It also likes black, rotten, sea sand. One of the Messrs. 

 Dicksons, of Chester, grows it of very superior quality ; but 

 it is grown on one of the reclaimed farms from the estuary of 

 the Dee, in salt sand. It also succeeds, under similar circum- 

 stances, in the Lothians ; and, indeed, any sea-coast place 

 should produce good Asparagus. I cannot help, while upon 

 this subject, expressing great regret that a vegetable so very 

 wholesome and easily obtained should be so completely ignored 

 in cottagers' gardens. A good bed will continue to bear fairly 

 well for fifty years with a little help. If we consider the 

 quantity generally got from even a small amount of ground, 

 say during some six weeks of the year, no other crop of any 

 sort can compare with it. Surely cottagers now-a-days want 

 something else besides Cabbages and Potatoes ? 



Cliveden. J. Fleming. 



[There are many places in England where soils exist 

 quite as well suited to the culture of Asparagus as those 

 of Argenteuil. We also know, from careful examination of the 

 mode of planting at Argenteuil, that there is nothing what- 

 ever in common between it and the Dutch mode of planting 

 bulbs ; the fact is, that many of the best growers use no manure 

 at planting time. The bulb ground is, on the other hand, 

 lightly enriched. In this connection we may refer the reader 

 to the preceding statements of Mr. Tillery and Mr. Elliott, that 

 chance Asparagus, in waste or unprepared places, did much 

 better than that sown in carefully prepared beds.] 



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